1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, process and system to plan for disaster recovery, to test disaster recovery plans, and to implement fall back or alternate operations in the event of a disaster at a computer facility.
2. Prior Art
The issue of disaster recovery for data center computer operations is increasingly important. Increasing amounts of time, effort and money are being spent not only on planning for the possibility of implementing disaster recovery but for periodic testing to assure that disaster recovery facilities are available.
Large mainframe computer operations typically have multiple mainframes with a variety of applications which are subject to periodic, interval backups. Not only do these large mainframe computer operations maintain off-site data storage, but independent, third-party businesses have arisen which act to not only store data off-site but act as data recovery facilities in the event of a disaster at the primary facility. In the event of a disaster, the third party operator attempts to duplicate the hardware, applications and processes.
For the past 20 to 30 years, cartridge tape units have been utilized at mainframe computer installations in order to store and backup data. To handle multiple tape cartridges, tape silos have been developed which include a robotic arm and a shelf or shelves of tapes. The silo can automatically load tapes into a tape drive. For cataloging and indexing functions, and to facilitate data accessability, typically one data set is placed on one tape volume. Some tape data sets span multiple volumes where others occupy less than a single volume which can result in a waste of tape as most data sets occupy only small portion of the media and the rest of the volume remains unused.
In many instances, tapes containing backup data are physically transported to an off-site storage location on a scheduled basis, stored until that data passes an expiration date then returned to the data center for reuse.
In the event of a disaster at the primary mainframe location, the off-site tape cartridges may be utilized to the extent they have the data stored thereon. In order for a remote location to run a primary site's system, various configuration data and information must be loaded and programmed on the computer at the disaster recovery facility. For example, IOCP (input/output control program) data must be loaded at the disaster recovery facility.
A number of attempts have been made in the past to incorporate an emulation device or emulator with a cartridge tape device. In one arrangement, an emulation device is interposed between a primary and a physical tape library which may be operated by a mechanical device such as a tape silo which physically picks a tape or tapes. Information from the tape is emulated but the data images themselves are stored exclusively on the physical tapes. Additionally, there is no central catalog of images, only a catalog maintained by each emulator. Moreover, the primary mainframe must retrieve an image or images so that disaster recovery is not facilitated without operation of the mainframe.
In another prior attempt to utilize a tape emulator, a virtual tape controller has been added to the above-described emulator. Again, none of these arrangements have an independent or outboard cataloging feature so that cataloging of the images may be done without intervention of or operation of the mainframe.
There remains a need to provide a system to verify and test off-site disaster recovery plans for a mainframe computer installation.
There also remains a need to provide a system which can facilitate rapid and simple operation of a backup computer facility in the event of a disaster at the primary computer installation.
There also remains a need to provide a disaster recovery planning and implementation system wherein no tapes need to be physically transported from the primary computer facility.